5 ms·

I wonder how much strife would come about should we develop such technology. It would undermine many countries dependent on production of fossil fuels. It woul

I wonder how much strife would come about should we develop such technology. It would undermine many countries dependent on production of fossil fuels. It would hurt companies who are in this trade, let alone those who create competitive energy technologies. By the same token, many countries are heavily vested in the businesses within their domain being able to complete. Finally, a safe and clean source of energy would likely become fairly cheap quickly which would boost production destabilizing the global economy. If any one country developed such technology could they keep it to themselves?

DennisP 12y ago
I doubt any country could keep it to themselves. Even if we tried and avoided espionage, once it's proven to work economically every major country would ramp up research. (But espionage would happen pretty quickly. We didn't even manage to keep the H-bomb secret for long.) I think the strife involved would be much less than we're having now from limited fossil supplies...and far less than we'll have a few decades now from climate change.
simonebrunozzi 12y ago
It would not be the first time that this happens in history. :)
justin66 12y ago
> It would undermine many countries dependent on production of fossil fuels. So the main risk would be... war in the middle east, unrest in Africa, that sort of thing? Let's hope that never happens.
WhoBeI 12y ago
> If any one country developed such technology could they keep it to themselves? I sure hope not because they shouldn't. Fusion has the potential to solve many environmental problems and since those problems typically don't give a shit about borders keeping it to yourself would be stupid.
stcredzero 12y ago
It would undermine many countries dependent on production of fossil fuels. If I were the Saudis and the petroleum multinationals, I would be pouring money into researching industrial processes that will only be practical once fusion is invented. Then once fusion is invented, those companies would stand to make a killing.

DennisP 12y ago

I doubt any country could keep it to themselves. Even if we tried and avoided espionage, once it's proven to work economically every major country would ramp up research. (But espionage would happen pretty quickly. We didn't even manage to keep the H-bomb secret for long.) I think the strife involved would be much less than we're having now from limited fossil supplies...and far less than we'll have a few decades now from climate change.

simonebrunozzi 12y ago

It would not be the first time that this happens in history. :)

justin66 12y ago

> It would undermine many countries dependent on production of fossil fuels. So the main risk would be... war in the middle east, unrest in Africa, that sort of thing? Let's hope that never happens.

WhoBeI 12y ago

> If any one country developed such technology could they keep it to themselves? I sure hope not because they shouldn't. Fusion has the potential to solve many environmental problems and since those problems typically don't give a shit about borders keeping it to yourself would be stupid.

stcredzero 12y ago

It would undermine many countries dependent on production of fossil fuels. If I were the Saudis and the petroleum multinationals, I would be pouring money into researching industrial processes that will only be practical once fusion is invented. Then once fusion is invented, those companies would stand to make a killing.